I Have Arrived!

I have arrived in Xi'an and since I am evidently going to be here for a while, I have been taking my time venturing out.  It's a bit cold here.  Not too bad and I suppose I am due for some cold weather especially since we had a surprisingly warm winter in Southern California.  Also, the air is a bit polluted so I am a bit wary of running outside.  It seems like the cloudier/ foggier it is, the more pollution there is in the air.  It's been a bit rainy and overcast the past couple of days so the air is not so great.

Because of the poor air quality and because I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, I decided to do my first run indoors in the hotel gym.  (Our apartment is not yet ready.)  This is what greeted me.

 I'm sure that there is a way to switch it to English, but I couldn't figure it out.  I took a guess and just pushed the big green button and got to here:

Since I could read "Jog" I pressed jog, and then pressed the "+" button until I was "jogging." The picture in the middle was a video that showed how to use the machine.  The machine in the video was in English, so after about the 4th time I watched it I was able to read the English on the machine in the video and figured out where the TV button was located.  Then it was just a matter of deciding which Chinese program to watch whilst listening to my iPod since I don't understand Chinese.

I decided on an infomercial for something called the Egg Master by Rollie.  Apparently it's just too difficult to cook eggs these days because they stick to the pan and you somehow end up with a whole sink full of dishes when you try to cook them.  But, if you just crack two eggs into the Egg Master and pop in a stick, you get perfectly cooked eggs on a stick.  You can put on your makeup while they are cooking!  It will save you so much time.  And your kids will eat them because they are on a stick and that makes them fun.  In fact, they are so fun that you can have a party and serve just eggs on a stick and everyone will have a great time and enjoy them very much.  They may even do a little dance of happiness... (although I think that was just the woman throwing the party.)  Oh the things you learn while watching TV!

So I finished my run, and got my summary:

Ahhh, good to know!

But that isn't the only thing I have done since I have been here.  I also got to go to get a government physical.  Apparently Riyadh isn't the only place that requires extensive medical tests. Although I must say that this physical was much more organized as well as much more extensive than my follow up physical At The Clinic in Riyadh.  

The whole process took about 2.5 hours and I had blood taken followed by an ultra sound, then a blood pressure test, then an EKG, then height, weight and vision, all topped off with a chest X-ray.  The majority of time was spent registering.  There was an extremely long line, but once we were through that, and went upstairs for the testing, (along with about 150 other people) they got you in and out of each room very quickly.  As soon as one person went in, the next one was on deck.  You couldn't even get your clothes straightened up before they were already strapping in the next person.  I think the longest test was the X-ray and that was because they could only have one person in the room at a time and then they had to develop the X-ray. 

Oh, and I didn't have to maneuver all these areas by myself.  The hotel sent me with a nice young woman who speaks English and was able to translate everything for me and tell me where to go and what to expect.  I would have preferred to not have to undergo all the testing, especially since I couldn't eat or drink anything beforehand and I was super hungry at the end and in dire need of coffee, but it wasn't too bad.  And that's what happened during my first few days in Xi'an.